North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Lon Rombough <lonrom@hevanet.com>]

The problem may be that it's hard to identify an old raspberry variety unless it has something really unusual about it.  Also, old patches don't usually last that many years.  Often they will get virus and are removed.  You'd almost have to find them around abandoned farms, and even then it would be hard to identify them.  The NCGR at Corvallis got just about all their selections from odd nurseries and such that have maintained them.  I was there when they found Antwerp in one single nursery in England - the last known source of the variety.  But for that one place, it would have been lost.
You might try the Amish, and similar groups that tend to protect and perpetuate varieties they have traditionally grown.
-Lon Rombough
Grapes, writing, consulting, my book, The Grape Grower, at http://www.bunchgrapes.com  Winner of the Garden Writers Association "Best Talent in Writing" award for 2003.
On Dec 15, 2004, at 6:11 PM, Michael D. Bathrick wrote:

I plan on spending some time this summer trying to find some "lost"
raspberries - checking out former farms, etc. for classics like
Brinckle's Orange, Red Antwerp, Hudson River Antwerp, etc.  Some of
these may have been too tender to make it through the winters up
here without care (the Berkshires of western MA - Zone 5), but I
will be checking in the Hudson Valley of NY and PA as well.

I was wondering if anyone who has done any similar project can give
me some suggestions or recommendations on how to do this.  Where to
look, books to read, maybe you already know where to find some of
these...

Corvallis is a good source for some, but they don't have that many
truly old ones - unless they have them but have just not listed
them.

Mike